


The Mystery Shack Mystery Man

by ArtsyFartsyBro



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen, Other, Reader Insert, Self Insert, Self indulget fic, Tags will be added as the stroy continues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-16
Packaged: 2019-06-28 04:21:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15700056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtsyFartsyBro/pseuds/ArtsyFartsyBro
Summary: The Mystery Shack has a collection of odd and exciting staff members ranging from the original Mr. Mystery to the new and limited edition Dr. Mystery! With a cast like them, its no wonder that the mystery shack has a mystery all its own.





	The Mystery Shack Mystery Man

“Hey there, Mr. Mystery,” you greeted your employer and friend, Stan Pines, when he opened the door to his home. He smiled to you and shook your hand as you two always did in the mornings when you arrived. 

“Ain’t Mr. Mystery anymore, kid,” he reminds with gruff chuckle and lets you inside. Its the beginning of autumn and its finally cool enough here in Gravity Falls, Oregon for you to start really layering up and wearing your hats comfortably. Not that you hadn’t been doing so before, it was just finally suitable temperature wise. “I have an aesthetic to uphold” you had explained once before only to earn a chuckle and a suggestion that perhaps you belonged here at the mystery shack as an exhibit. “Guy who wears layers in 100 Degree heat” would have been a great exhibit if you didn't have a job to fulfill. Stan had allowed you to use his office when you came, setting up your laptop and working on maintaining the website for the Mystery Shack. Despite his continued protests of not being Mr. Mystery, he was hopelessly devoted to the place. You had actually been hired on by Soos somewhere in the time that Mr. Mystery the first was off with his brother on some adventure and upon Stan and Ford’s return, you finally got to meet the legend that was town hero Stan Pines. You’d been good friends ever since.

“What clickbait type of headlines are you posting today?” He asked as he unlocked the door to the office. 

“I’m thinking of writing a post on that new attraction Soos has been workin’ on,” you answer, heading past him to settle yourself in at the desk. “ ‘Mystery Of The Mystery Shack: New exhibit appears overnight’,” you reveal your headline and the man laughs. 

“You, kid, are good.” You share a smile before he shuffles out to allow you your “zone” and you start on the article for the newsletter and front page. You were working on setting up a following for the Mystery Shack’s instagram too but it was taking a bit to really take off like the site had. You’d been working under Mr. Pines and Mr. Ramirez officially for about a year at this point and you could easily say it was your favourite job. You got to come in, poke around the mystery shack, shoot the breeze, and post on social media. After typing up and formatting the post, you decide to go snap some pictures. You save, and head out to the showroom where you grabbed a handful of pictures as well as tidied up some. You often would join in on tours for your articles, posing as a tourist and none would be the wiser. 

Everyone at the shack had a special role. Soos was the new Mr. Mystery, Stan was founder and Mr. Mystery sr., Wendy, during the summers, was Miss Mystery: head cashier, and Ford, who would sometimes jump in, was Dr. Mystery. You, however, had taken it upon yourself to be a secret. Besides, no one came to the mystery shack to meet the journalist. You settled back in your chair and added the photos, proofed twice, and save the piece to be uploaded later when you finished the instagram post involving the new attraction. A collection of photos, one a frosted photo of the new exhibit with a question mark over top, two a close up on part of the attraction, and three a photo of the mystery shack. The third picture in the collection was one of two always used to provide people information on where to find them, the other being a picture of the yellow “what is the mystery shack” bumper sticker. Once all of your posts were formatted and reread multiple times, you posted them all and sat back in the chair with a smile, stretching your arms above you. Just as you were standing to get a water, Soos came in.

“Hey, dude, love the post about the exhibit! Even I wanted to come see it!”

You smile and thank him earnestly.

“So, I was thinking,” he starts “well, mr. pines actually thought of it but I agree,” he continued and you raise a brow. “What if you were a mystery, dude?”

“Me, a mystery? What? Like an exhibit?” Your brows are furrowed now in confusion.

“Lets go have a meeting,” Soos suggests and leads you out to the living room. You settle in at the table in the corner as Soos persuades Stan to come join you. “So, like, Mystery shacks mystery man.”

“Yeah,” stan nods “just think about it. We wouldn't need a bunch of new attractions if the Mystery Shack had its own mystery!” Stan waves his fingers “saves the shack on cash of making new exhibits in the long term, we get more tourists because they wanna find out about this mystery, boom, money.” You nod, understanding the concept.

“We wouldn’t do it for a little while; you did just post that awesome new exhibit,” Soos assures. “But this will make it so we have more time between exhibits and stuff!”

“And it takes up no room in the shack!” Stan points out. “Saves on real estate for other exhibits and we can always call back to it when tourist season dies down.” A very good point indeed.

“Alright but why me?” You fold your arms over themselves and rest them on the table, a look of confusion and curiosity still on your face. 

“Well, dude, you’re the only one they don’t see. You’re already, like, in the perfect position for this.” 

“O..kay? How are we going to establish ‘the mystery shack mystery man’ as a character?” You press, just as Ford is passing through. 

“Mystery Shack Mystery Man?” He inquires and the three of you nod. He joins you as Stan and Soos explain the idea. “Have you considered coded messages?” He offers and you consider it. 

“Alright so we do a basic caesar on posts? But where?” 

“Instagram, dude. You’ve been trying to get it to take off, right? This could be the exact thing we need for that!” Alright this was starting to sound like a proper, well thought out plan. You were starting to buzz a bit but stayed cautious.

“So we have the medium and the means but we still don't really have an idea for content aside from ‘mystery man’. What should I post about? How,” you pause as you search for exactly what you're asking “how are we going to establish a mystery man as a thing the shack has and make it exciting for tourists?”

“Oh dude,” Soos’ face lights up as he has an idea. “Make a collection of, like, bio posts on each of us. Like on fandom Wikias!” 

“Okay that is a grand idea,” you say, pointing to him “I’m liking this. Make everyone one and then the last one has that unknown facebook user vibe?”

“Yes! Exactly! And you're, like, already so good at drawing people in so it should make them super curious!”

“And it could be new merch if people get into it! Like trading cards!” Stan suggests enthusiastically. 

Your group collectively agrees that “The Mystery Shack Mystery Man” is a great idea and continue brainstorming for a bit. It takes you about a week to draw up the final designs for the trading card like images for the mystery shack staff as well as work on some basic lore before you start the launch. Day one, two posts. The first has an image of what resembles a character choice screen with everyone greyed out. The next, you start with the picture of Soos labeled as “Mr. Mystery”, the next has his “bio”, and the third is the image from the first post but now, the Mr. Mystery Slot has is in colour. The end of the text of the post has a simple message at the bottom. “p’ss zll fvb zvvu” The following few days, you post just the bio photos for each person until finally, its “launch day” as you've all called it. Each post is accompanied by a message. The message on Stan’s post is “p’cl illu olyl hss hsvun.” Wendy’s reads “fvb jhu’a pnuvyl tl huf tvyl”. And finally, Ford’s reads as “olyl p jvtl.”  
Each day, you'd get more and more activity in your notifications. People started posting theories about the mystery text in the comments surprisingly fast. It was exciting.  
You sit at the living room table with the other staff members, your phone sitting in the middle.  
The image of a blacked out silhouette with question marks as the name is the first image, the usual following bio is itself in code, spelling out a cryptic story of a man no one has ever fully seen, not even the crew, and the final player screen with everyone in full colour. The only text on the post itself is “p’t aol tfzalyf thu.” Together, you count down to launch.  
“Five.”  
“Four.”  
“Three.”  
“Two.”  
“One.”  
You press the button and launch.

It seems like a silly thing to celebrate but after waiting a moment to refresh your feed, seeing a notification icon at the bottom of the screen with the number six was something to behold. And so you as a group celebrate the victory with ice pops and for once, you have to turn off the notifications for your phone.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading this! I hope you like it!


End file.
